High time if you ask me

SANTA FE, N.M. - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the nation's only Hispanic governor, is endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, calling him a "once-in-a- lifetime leader" who can unite the nation and restore America's international leadership.

Richardson, who dropped out of the Democratic race in January, is to appear with Obama on Friday at a campaign event in Portland, Ore., The Associated Press has learned.

Home sweet home

Just after Thanksgiving we made a discovered a waterfall, not on safari, but in our dining room. This sort of thing happens to people who have 90year old houses. Iron pipes can build up blockages worse than a fat guy’s arteries.

Let me tell you something, it is impossible to overestimate how big a home project will be or how long it will take. Home improvement is like a California wildfire, it rapidly spreads from room to room and eats up everything in its path, costing untold fortunes.

As a teacher I’m always hearing about the 3 R’s, “Readin, wRitin, and aRithmetic”. When I used to teach History and I’d get to FDR’s program during the Great Depression, it was “Relief, Recovery, and Reform.” Anybody who’s ever owned a house understands that it’s neither of those. The real 3R’s are Repair, Remodel, and Refinance.”

They couldn’t get at the upstairs bathroom without tearing up the kitchen ceiling and one wall… as long as the kitchen is tore up, we may as well fix it up, it will never be so easy and it would just cost more to do it later… may as well deal with the downstairs bathroom, it’s given us so much trouble too… as long as we’re working on this other bathroom, why not put in a shower downstairs…knock this wall out… widen that, redo this.

Come to find out, our antique “knob and tube” wiring combined with our antique shredded paper insulation were a recipe for disaster. It’s a wonder that it hadn’t burned down years ago. And of course, when it rains it pours; no sooner had we decided to make the first floor bathroom into a bath/laundry room then both our washer and dryer went out. The appliance paramedics declared one dead on the scene and the other in critical yet stable condition.

Needless to say, with no bathrooms or a kitchen our house became temporarily unlivable. We started out taking the kids to the farm every other night for baths, then stayed for supper. One weekend the folks went down to see my brother-in-law’s family in Kansas and came back to find we’d taken over.

It’s certainly been a challenge for everyone to adjust to each other’s “UFOM.” That’s family counselor speak for Unified Family Operating Model (UFOM).

For example; one family may place knives and forks sharp-side-up to insure that the utensils get clean in the dishwasher, whereas another family unit may be used to placing them sharp-side-down so as to prevent severe injury when reaching to empty silver wear from the dishwasher. I’m not complaining, honest.

Empty-nesters only do dishes about once a week, once the dishwasher finally gets filled with dirty dishes. Young families sometimes run their dishwasher more than once a day. The same goes for washers and driers, which may explain the lack of longevity of ours.

Recently retired, I’m sure Marge and Allan would love to sleep in till at least eight and enjoy the paper with some coffee and get reacquainted. Instead, their houseguests are all up at six and frantically getting their hair and teeth brushed and clothes on just in time for some Captain Crunch before going off to school.

Retired people never really eat. When they do, they enjoy delicacies like lettuce and oatmeal. Whereas young families eat things like Catsup casserole garnished with Ketchup and carbohydrates.

It’s been quite an adjustment for all of us, although I have to say that it’s been easiest on those of us who are eight and under. For Beth and I, it’s been a traumatic ordeal. For the folks I’m sure it’s been an inconvenient sacrifice. For the girls it’s been a month-long pajama party and Grandma and Grandpa’s.

When we started, we thought we’d be able to move back in by the end of the month. That was February. For a while, we held out hope that we’d be done in time for Easter. At this rate, we’re planning on using our summer vacation to finish up.

I already promised my in-laws that once all the work is done and we’re back in our own house, they’re welcome to come stay with us for at least a month.

Markets low, oil high?

"...the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True, they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money.

Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored conditions. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.

They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled their high seats in the temple of our civilization (see Matthew 21:11-13). We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.

The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money, it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow-men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be values only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit, and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing.

Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live."

From FDR's first inagural address, 1933- the speech where he declared we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Do you ever feel like our leaders have been trying to use fear to manipulate us?

• Fear of terrorists (trying to link AlQuaeda to Iran, even though Iran is Shi'a and hates Muhabeist Suniis like AlQuaeda)
• Fear of "the other"- blaming our economic and crime problems on immigrants desperate for a better way of life
• Fear of what is different, a black man with an Arab middle name, or homosexuals or anyone who believes differently that the most visible and vocal television preachers.
  

But fear is wrong, even in the most difficult times. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18

Just some things to think about.

Frank Schaeffer: McCain's Church Hates America, Clinton's Friends Do Too -- But Let's Get the Black Guy (Or Not?) - Politics on The Huffington Post

Frank Schaeffer: McCain's Church Hates America, Clinton's Friends Do Too -- But Let's Get the Black Guy (Or Not?) - Politics on The Huffington Post

Frank Schaeffer: McCain's Church Hates America, Clinton's Friends Do Too -- But Let's Get the Black Guy (Or Not?) - Politics on The Huffington Post

But fair is fair. So where are the clips of me in Falwell's pulpit (back in the early 1980s before I dropped out of the evangelical movement) preaching to five thousand cheering white fundamentalists while I shouted; "God hates America for the murder of the unborn! We should be destroyed!"

When my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- and I were the guests of Jerry Falwell at Liberty Baptist College, Falwell said to us quite casually and seriously, while speaking of the "homosexual problem," that: "If I had a dog that did what they do I take it out and shoot it." And when it came to saying God was damning America he and Pat Robertson sided with the 9/11 hijackers by saying the terrorist's actions served America right and were God's punishment. Yet John McCain went to Liberty Baptist College and spoke for Falwell, in order to "mend fences" with the Religious Right. He said he no longer believed that Falwell was "an agent of intolerance." And Rudy Giuliani gladly accepted Robertson's endorsement. So much for the Republican "mainstream..."

Bishop Moore, in his 1997 autobiography, Presences: A Bishop's Life in the City, wrote that the end of the Cold War had left the United States "like a wounded rooster crowing on the top of the dung heap." Blaming "corporate greed and lust" as well as "unbridled nationalism" for manufacturing causes for war, Moore cursed America as often as he served communion.

McCain is an Episcopalian. Where are the clips of the anti-American rantings of Bishop Moore and not a few other Episcopalian pastors and bishops, next to McCain's picture?...

Okay, I'm being sarcastic, this is silly. And that's the point. From the other guy's point of view all religion and politics is extreme.

Preaching is a style of communication with its own cadences that is easy to mock and/or twist-by-sound-bite. The Clinton's smear machine, now tied to the FOX smear-machine, is playing a very dirty game. And the Clinton's know better.

Repenting for war

Dear friend,

Next week will mark five years since the United States invaded
Iraq. We all lament the suffering and violence that continue
after these five heartbreaking years, and we all share in
responsibility for a war that has been waged in our names and
with our tax dollars.

That's why I've added my name to a public statement repenting
for the Iraq war, which Jim Wallis and other Christian leaders
will be releasing next week - with the signatures of thousands
of Christians of all theological and political stripes.

Support for U.S. wars and foreign policy is still the area where
Christians are most "conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2). We
must commit to put our love for Christ ahead of obedience to a
misguided government, and to ask our brothers and sisters to
join us in working for peace.

Will you join me in signing the statement?

Just click here:

http://go.sojo.net/campaign/iraqstatement1?rk=o1w9LjdqELJOW

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In order to form a more perfect union

I think he is an amazing writer and speaker. If he is elected, this speech will be in History textbooks. If he isn't, it still points out difficult realities that we as Americans need to have honest, vulnerable, and serious conversations about.

If you'd rather read the speech yourself, the Chicago Tribune has posted the full text here.

Happy St. Pat's

May your St. Patrick's day be filled with Audacious Hopes!

Happy St. Pat's

A little too much fun with PhotoShop

Irish Pub Breakfast

Category:		Breakfast & Brunch
Style:		Irish

Description:
I have a friend you visited the emerald isle for vacation once who sent me a post card with this recipe on it.

Ingredients:
Raw Oysters
1 Pint of Guinness Stout (warm)

Directions:
Drink oysters and eat beer. Yu

Happy St. Pat's

Shhhhh!

The other night I was reading a book I’d checked out of the library and I glanced at the little card in the front where the librarian stamps it. The book was published in 1990 but I was only the tenth person to check it out. The last time someone borrowed it from the library was two years before me.

Part of me felt bad that so few people seem to read in our area. Then I banished that thought with the reality that there must be a few thousand books in the library to choose from, so it’s no surprise that the book had only been checked out once every two years in the last eighteen years.

Then I felt bad that who ever does the book buying for the library would’ve picked out such an unpopular book that obviously doesn’t appeal to many people in our area.

Then it dawned on me that maybe I just happen to have pretty dang idiosyncratic tastes in books and there must be something wrong with me. Then I went back to reading my library book.